


cold front

by stupidgaytree



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: EDIT I MEANT SYLVAIN I SAID KEPLER I MEANT SYLVAIN, Gen, dani said she had a little brother still in kepler and i wrote this in 20 minutes, im a sucker for sibling relationships lads.........., little brother in sylvain. i hope hes not in kepler, set a couple years before present canon, sorry lol, spoilers for ep 11 obv
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-30 19:48:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15103730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stupidgaytree/pseuds/stupidgaytree
Summary: Dani promises to visit after moving out.Unfortunately, circumstances can change.





	cold front

A resounding  _ whack  _ comes from the other side of Dani’s door. She rolls her eyes, sets down a box full of knick-knacks, and crosses the room to open the door.

“Why can’t you knock like a normal person?” she asks as Trevor slinks in. He sticks his tongue out at her.

“Mom said I should stop throwing chalk at the sidewalk and help you pack,” he grouses. His eye is caught by Dani’s sketchbook, lying open on her bed, and he grins and darts towards it.

He just barely beats her to grabbing it and starts flipping through it. “Ooh, are these your  _ drawings?  _ Why don’t half of them have a left eye?”

“I don’t like drawing them. Give that  _ back,  _ you gremlin.” She snatches it from his grasp, closes it firmly, and sets it in another open box. Trevor sticks his lower lip out in an exaggerated pout and sits down heavily on Dani’s bed.

“What do you want me to help with?” he asks, picking at the stitches on the quilt.

“You can help by sitting quietly on the bed and not touching my stuff.”

He groans and flops onto his back. Dani goes to a bookshelf and starts pulling things out, placing them on the floor.

She can feel Trevor glaring at the back of her head, and finally he says, “Where are you going, again?”

“I’m moving out, Trevor. Because I’m an  _ adult. _ ”

“You aren't an adult. You can barely talk to cashiers.”

“Social competence does not an adult make. Also, shut up.” She tosses a book over her shoulder and hears Trevor grunt in tune with a flat  _ whack _ .

“Why’d you -- is this a comic book?”

“It was Leo’s. They gave it to me ‘cause I won a bet. You can have it.”

“Your friends are such geeks,” she hears him mutter over the sound of turning pages.

Another hour goes by with Trevor sniping at her while Dani packs. Eventually, as she tapes a small plastic carton closed, he says, “Geez. It looks abandoned in here.”

She looks around the room. He’s not  _ wrong _ ; with her few posters and many drawings off the wall, and the shelves bare, it doesn't look like the room she grew up in. A kind of cold finality settles into her chest.

“You’re being dramatic,” she says, hoisting the carton on top of a bigger cardboard box. “It’s just kinda empty.”

“Yeah, no duh.” He’s sitting cross-legged on her bed, the comic book next to him, and after a few minutes he says, “Bet you're gonna come back in a month. Bet you'll get lonely and wanna see us again.”

“That’s called visiting. I’m not even going that far away, Trev. It’s an apartment, like, a mile from here.”

He snorts. “Yeah, sure. Enjoy your loser apartment.”

“I will! Thank you.” She flashes him a grin, and he flips her the bird.

“Trevor!” comes their mother’s voice down the hall, “Baby, can you help me with something?”

Trevor groans and drags himself off the bed. He gets to the door, pauses, and turns on his heel.

“Hey, Dani?” he says.

“Yeah?”

He scowls, then crosses the room again and hugs her. Dani laughs and hugs back, and he gives her a friendly shove when he breaks away.

“You better visit,” he says, “Or Mom and Dad might wither up and die.”

“Of course I’m gonna visit.”

“Good.” He nods, grabs the comic book off Dani’s bed, and leaves the room.

 

***

 

Dani steps foot on Earth for the first time at night, in the middle of winter.

It’s a stark contrast to the coastal area she grew up in. The trees cast long shadows over the snow that sits in mounds on the ground, and there's a bite to the air that makes Dani shiver. As if trembling from general shock and panic wasn't enough.

She turns back to the portal immediately, just to get a last word from her escorts, maybe to at least understand  _ why  _ this is happening, but she stares into an empty stone arch. The portal is closed, and her last road to home is gone.

And she’s alone.

Her fingers and face are already starting to go numb. She figures she has two options: wander through the woods, undisguised, and hope she can find the promised friendly humans while avoiding less friendly ones, or stay put and wait for the friendly humans to find her, potentially freezing to death in the process.

Two options: get shot in the face by a panicking human, or die slowly and alone.

She inhales, rubs her eyes free of the tears that are threatening to spill over, and thinks,  _ I’m nineteen years old, almost twenty. Adults can walk through the woods. _ She stares into the trees, and takes a step forward.

Almost immediately, the sound of what she thinks is a motor of some kind reaches her ears, rapidly gaining volume. She yelps out loud and stumbles backwards through the arch, almost falling into the snow.

A few seconds later, a clunky shape trundles its way out of the trees before her, rumbling loudly and with light spilling from its front. She recognizes it after a second as an Earth car, and as she uneasily watches, the doors on each side open and two figures step out. One is much taller and bulkier than the other, with a raggedy jacket on and curly hair spilling over its collar, and as they both begin to approach Dani shrinks back instinctively.

“Now, hold on there,” the taller shape says, and as they come closer Dani sees a dark-skinned, assumably human woman with graying black hair. The other person is a man with a thin beard, brown skin, and long, dark hair tied back in a ponytail, and he gives her a warm smile.

Dani stares at the both of them uncertainly, and the woman says, “You ain’t got nothin’ to fear, alright? We ain’t gonna hurt you. This is Barclay, see, he’s a Sylph just like you, and I’m Mama.”

The man — Barclay — says softly, “I know this is terrifying, and it sucks, but we have a place you can stay safely, okay? What’s your name?”

Dani swallows, but when she speaks her voice still trembles. “I’m Dani.”

“Alright, Dani, you wanna get out of the snow?” he asks.

When Dani hesitates, Mama adds, “S’nice and warm in the truck. Looks like your nose is turning blue, pumpkin.”

She slowly nods. Both of them grin back at her, and lead her through the snow to the truck.

**Author's Note:**

> i just love dani so much guys im sorry.........................................................


End file.
